04/27/2023 12:42
Shadow City: SSP2
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Project “Shadow City-Sham Shui Po 2” imagines a living environment in a future city, SSP-2, using Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong as a prototype.
The project explores topics related to the future, information, computation, and connections across multiple scales with a speculated city situated in a space colony at Lagrange point 4 in 2045. Humans will be connected to a centralized, planetary computing system underground. The living needs are delivered through the architecture to the capsules that humans live with in.
The space colony idea is based on the document NASA SP-413 Space Settlements: A Design Study in 1977 directed by Ames Research Center and Stanford University.
This hand-drawn narrative project with an extreme, hyper-connected living condition is a reflection on the current society with information overflow, over-sharing, and over-receiving. It also develops as a response, further thinking on the coming supercomputing center construction in Cyberport, Hong Kong, and the challenges from AI that designers face with a critical urban morphology idea.
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Process
//Imagination on 2045 in 2023
This project imagines a human habitat in a future city, using Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong as a prototype which partly is a reclaimed land. The grid and sharp coastline gives a sense of artificial to the district when looking in plan.
The visualization of the project is a radical imagination yet relatable to the rapid advancement in technology. The importance and progress of searching and building new homeland is probably underestimated. It might resolve some of the problems currently in human society while provoke more conflicts beyond the planet. The project decides to focus on this topic with an awareness on the future. With the catalyze of AI becoming popular, the scene in sci-fi movie seems realizing in a near future.
//Space Colony- Lagrangian Point 5
This speculated city, SSP-2, is situated in a space colony at Lagrange point 5. The space colony idea is based on the document NASA SP-413 Space Settlements: A Design Study in 1977 directed by Ames Research Center and Stanford University.
The model consists of a planet disk and a calendar disk. The four rollers of the planet disk facilitate the rotation overlays on the calendar disk engraved with the Gregorian Calendar.
To explain the concept of Lagrange points in the sun-earth system, the model simplified the concept. The relative locations of celestial bodies will be shown when it is rotated by hand. The date of them in a solar year (which is determined by their revolution around the Sun) can also be referenced on the lower disk of the device.
//Centralized Habitation
The Tower Habitation is a highly integrated mega-structure made with steel. The whole structure is a giant mast radiator for wireless communication and a physical link between the underground planetary computer and the capsule units. It serves as housing, infrastructure, and transportation hub in the context of the community that relies on computational power as the basic need for living.
//Integrated Dwelling: Hemodialysis Capsules
The Hemodialysis Capsules are the living spaces connected to Tower Habitation. Modified humans (cyborgs) are fed on fluid by connecting to centralized systems. The capsules are also considered as an extension of their body to adapt to the low-gravity environment.
For the whole space colony narrative, the capsules are cockpits that can dock with different facilities like cars, spaceships, etc. However, it is not fully resolved in the given project period.
The project shows an extreme prediction for the future world. Yet, it questions the behavior of present society critically, assessing if the resources in technology are used wisely.
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Award & Exhibition
Architecture MasterPrize 2024
Student Architectural Design Award, Other Architecture
Architecture MasterPrize 2024
Student Landscape Architecture Award, Conceptual Landscape
IDA 2024 (Non-Professional)
Silver, Architecture Project Development, Industrial/Infrastructure
IDA 2024 (Non-Professional)
Honorable Mention, Commercial Interior Design/Workspace Design
Manual Design Technique Development Award
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Design
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